CALIFORNIANS SUPPORT MORE GUN CONTROL, NEW POLL FINDS

Sacramento 
A new poll on some of the most divisive issues of the day shows that a majority of Californians favor more gun control, support same-sex marriage and believe unauthorized immigrants should be allowed to keep working in the U.S. while applying for legal status.

The survey conducted by the nonprofit Public Policy Institute of California also found broad support for Gov. Jerry Brown’s approach to balancing the state budget and President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul.

“We are definitely more Democratic than the nation as a whole on issues like immigration, gun control and health care, so we are going to line up more on that side,” said Mark Baldassare, PPIC president.

For example, the poll shows a large majority of Californians standing up for immigrant rights, whether they are here legally or not.

“On one hand you can say it demonstrates we’re a blue state, but it also demonstrates that Republicans in California have a different perspective than what has come from Republican leadership in Washington in the past,” Baldassare said.

The survey of 1,704 California adults, including 1,386 registered voters and 1,116 likely voters, was taken from Jan. 15 through Jan. 22. Among the adults questioned, 44 percent are Democrats, 29 percent Republicans and 22 percent independents. Thirty-four percent of those surveyed identified themselves as Latino or Hispanic.

The poll had a margin of error of between 3.5 percent and 6.5 percent, depending on the subgroup polled.

Some of the key results:

Gun control

Background: California already has some of the toughest gun laws in the nation. But the shooting massacres in Colorado and Connecticut have sparked new efforts to tighten both state and federal regulations, from bans on certain weapons to who can legally own guns. The poll found:

• 65 percent of Californians say government does not do enough when it comes to regulating guns, up from 53 percent last March.

• 65 percent support a national ban on assault weapons. (California already has restrictions.) Of those in support, 47 percent said they own a gun.

Immigration

Background: Two proposals were unveiled this week to overhaul federal immigration policy, from a path to citizenship to tighter border security. The blueprints — advanced by a bipartisan group of U.S. senators and separately by Obama — are in response to a growing post-election realization that common ground must be found given the economic and societal impacts related to immigration controls. The PPIC poll, taken before the plans were released, found:

• 76 percent say unauthorized immigrants who have lived and worked in the U.S. for more than two years should be allowed to stay on the job and apply for legal status. Eighty-five percent of Democrats have that view and 59 percent of Republicans.

• 21 percent said those unauthorized immigrants should be deported. Of those, 36 percent are Republicans, 13 percent Democrats, 33 percent white and 28 percent are 55 or older.

Thirty-one percent say they are a burden because they use public services.

Same-sex marriage

Background: California voters in 2008 banned same-sex marriage — a law that is being challenged before the U.S. Supreme Court. Meanwhile, nine states have approved same-sex marriage. The PPIC poll found:

• 53 percent of Californians support the right of gay couples to marry, mirroring polls taken in March and May of 2012.

• 67 percent of Democrats approve of same-sex marriage while 65 percent of Republicans are opposed.

State budget and taxes

Brown this month unveiled his proposed plan to balance the 2013-14 state budget. With the aid of taxes approved by voters in November, the budget would increase school spending, pay down debt and create a $1 billion reserve. Brown also wants to shift more money to schools with large populations of students whose first language is not English and/or are poor.

• 69 percent favor Brown’s overall approach, including 79 percent of Democrats and 78 percent of public school parents.

• 49 percent say believe local authorities can handle the state’s policy to shift more low-level prisoners to county jails.

• 70 percent favor hiking cigarette taxes, which failed on the 2012 ballot, to raise revenues. Fifty-four percent favor more corporate taxes, but 61 percent oppose extending the sales tax to services that are currently not taxed, such as auto repair or legal help.

• 57 percent favor allowing local school parcel taxes to increase with a 55 percent vote, instead of the current two-thirds majority.

• 40 percent say it’s a “good thing” that Democrats control two-thirds of the Legislature, 27 said it was bad and 29 percent said it makes no difference.

Health care

Background: Brown has called for a special session to implement Obama’s overhaul of the health care system.

• 55 percent of Californians support the changes — an 8-point increase since last March. The largest bloc of supporters are Democrats, 76 percent, and Latinos, 70 percent.

• 49 percent of those with families said the new law will not make any difference, 25 percent said they will be better off and 23 percent said they will be worse off.

• 43 percent of those without insurance said the law will not affect them, 23 percent said they will be better off and 23 percent said they will be worse off.

Overall mood

Background: With California seemingly inching out of the Great Recession and Brown coming off a triumph at the polls for his tax increases, the mood is more upbeat today than it has been for some time.

• 49 percent say California will experience “good times” in the coming 12 months — the highest sense of optimism since January 2007.